MPs' expenses: censored version MPs' expenses claims goes online

The House of Commons will today publish hundreds of thousands of carefully
censored documents setting out some details of MPs’ expenses claims.

MPs were given several weeks to inspect the documents and blackout information they believe should be withheldPhoto: AFP/GETTY

By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent

6:00AM BST 18 Jun 2009

More than a month after The Daily Telegraph began disclosing details of members’ use of public money, the House authorities have published their own, edited version of MPs’ claim forms and the receipts they submitted.

However, the documents have been extensively redacted to remove crucial information including MPs’ home addresses.

Many of The Daily Telegraph’s disclosures about MPs’ dubious practices, like the flipping of designated second homes to maximise their financial gains, depend on knowing the addresses of the properties.

Such addresses will not be included in the Commons version. Nor will correspondence between members and the Commons fees office, which oversees their claims.

That means that claims made by MPs but rejected by officials – such as those made by members for Remembrance Sunday wreaths – will not be in the official documents. The Commons had been due to publish its version of the expenses documents next month, but brought forward publication after The Daily Telegraph’s disclosures.

Even the accelerated timetable has been slowed down by the employment of security consultants to cut “sensitive” information from the documents.

MPs were also given several weeks to inspect the documents and blackout information they believe should be withheld.

It is believed that the Commons will not publish documents relating to MPs who have since left the House. That would mean that the claims of Tony Blair, Lord Mandelson and Boris Johnson would be omitted.

Today’s documents will cover the three financial years from 2004-05. Publication of documents for 2008-09 has been put delayed while the Commons investigates The Daily Telegraph’s disclosures.